


trust me

by inmylife



Category: NU'EST
Genre: Angst, Hurt/Comfort, Panic Attacks, Sort of? - Freeform, i'm sorry for hurting my babies so, some angst to soften your day, the other members are only briefly mentioned
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-11
Updated: 2017-12-11
Packaged: 2019-02-13 16:42:21
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 737
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12988167
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/inmylife/pseuds/inmylife
Summary: "Shh, shh, shh. I'm here."





	trust me

**Author's Note:**

> i promised kira i would write her some jonghyun/dongho friendship for working on her essay but in all honesty i don't think this was what i started out trying to write? i'm so sorry for hurting my sons this way

It starts with a broken plate.

Dongho is up late reading… or composing… or something. Staring aimlessly at his computer screen, more like. He's been sort-of-but-not-really exiled from his and Aron's room by way of Minki. They were cuddling, and he didn't want to interrupt, so here he is on the couch listening to Jonghyun do whatever he does in the kitchen.

But then he hears the ceramic crash to the floor, and the subsequent gasp, and he shoves his computer to the side.

Jonghyun is staring at the floor, at the shards of plate, frozen, eyes wide, muscles tense, shaking. Dongho stands and rushes over to the kitchen.

First priority - making sure neither of them hurt themselves. He collects the broken pieces carefully, delicately, and brushes the floor with his hands to ensure he hasn't missed any smaller pieces before depositing the lot into their sink. Second priority - making sure Minki and Aron don't flip. "We're fine!" He calls in the general direction of the bedrooms. "A plate broke, but I'm taking care of it."

Third priority. Jonghyun.

Aron's been the one they've leaned on since coming back from Produce. Their reliable hyung. Who keeps an eye on the increasingly insecure Minki and allows Seonho and Hyunbin and the others into the dorm with minimal complaining and puts an arm around Jonghyun at tense moments and comforted Dongho when he'd heard about his father.

Dongho's always been who Jonghyun went to, though. They're similar - they carry the weight of the group on their shoulders. They both blamed themselves when Nu'est crashed and burned while simultaneously dancing around in circles to make the other feel better. The difference between them is that Dongho can manage himself, seek help when he needs it. Jonghyun suffers in silence.

So Dongho stands and wraps his leader in his arms, making small shushing sounds and rubbing his hands up and down Jonghyun's back. Where You At will drop tomorrow, which is why all four of them (and no doubt Minhyun, too, somewhere) are stressballs to the nth degree. Why it takes something as simple as a broken plate to send Jonghyun into panic so deep he barely seems to notice Dongho's there.

"I'm here. Shh-shh, it's alright."

"We're going to fail again, Dongho."

It breaks Dongho's heart to see Jonghyun give up. None of them ever have… they came close, but it was always _what if_. Never _we will._

"I have a good feeling about this," Dongho murmurs, still stroking at Jonghyun's tense body. He does have a good feeling about Where You At, it's true. It's quite possibly the most personal thing any of them have ever recorded. But that might be a good thing. It's what their fans - both those who'd been there since the beginning, and those they'd accumulated via Produce 101 - are expecting.

It's going to work. Dongho has to believe it will work, because otherwise he'd never get outside of his own head long enough to function as a human being.

"When has anything ever worked?" Jonghyun's breaths come halting, stuttery, and pangs of anxiety wrack his body. Dongho keeps his arms safe and tight.

"I don't know, Jonghyun, but this will. Trust me. And if not, I'll get Aron-hyung and make him show you those internet things."

Aron had taken to browsing the internet lately, skimming English social media sites and Korean fansites both to try and gauge interest. It's stressing the other three out to a ridiculous extent, but it seems to reassure Aron, who had told Dongho the other night -

_"The international fans won't let us fail."_

"Aron hyung needs to… ah, fuck," Jonghyun sighs, the fight slowly leaching out of him. Dongho isn't sure what he's said that's calmed him down, but he's glad that something's worked, anyway.

"We'll be fine. They won't let us disband until Minhyun comes back, anyway."

"The debt, though…" Jonghyun tenses again.

"We'll figure it out, Jonghyunnie," Dongho murmurs, holding the thinner boy closer against him.

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry…"

"Shh, shh, shh. I'm here."

Dongho has given pointless apologies of his own enough times to know that there's no stopping Jonghyun when he gets like this. He just has to wait it out - like Jonghyun has done for him, times innumerable.

And so he waits, his terrified leader wrapped in his arms, trying to quell the uncertainty weighing down his stomach. Waits until morning.

**Author's Note:**

> listen i really don't know what this is im sorry


End file.
